The Olympics and How They Remind Us We're Alive

                So I’ve been watching the Olympics, and unlike my parents, don’t mute and ignore all of the commercials. Personally, I think that’s a generational thing; our generation, children of the information age, cannot pass up a soundbite. Especially those thirty seconds or less that aim to trick us into buying something. That’s where we are most at home; it’s like the internet.

                Anyway, so my interest has been piqued by the commercials for the new show Revolution; scheduled to come out September 17^th (because I’m sure as hell watching it. You best remember that date. And isn’t that the day after Nick Jonas’ birthday? Haha). This show is based on the premise that somehow, all the power in the world has been knocked out, throwing our information-driven world back into the dark ages. It is going to follow the path of one girl who gained her own power when everyone else lost theirs, and is now a Katniss-like badass survival machine.

                This story is not unique. Hullo, the Hunger Games, first of all. A girl, hopeless against outside events as she fights for survival? With a bow? Yes. This has been done before. The whole survival thing has been done; it’s like some ingrained human fetish. And I am definitely one of those most affected; Survivor is one of my favorite shows, Hunger Games was for a time, an obsession, anyone heard of the game Lost in Blue for DS? I’ve had it for years, and need to replace it, so I can beat it for the third time WITHOUT it freezing up on me. Survival isn’t just the aim of all living things, it’s ingrained into their conscious minds, too. And now that humans, at least most of them, don’t have to worry about it, we still return to it for entertainment.

                Why is this? Well, for one, like sex, it’s something that never gets old. It’s the essence of our existence, and nothing gives us more of a thrill. Just like the Romans, with their panem et circenses, and Panem of the Hunger Games, with their own arena. Those who are comfortable, and safe, still need to feel, to be thrilled, and this is how.

                That’s the ultimate intrigue of Revolution, and why, come September, I will be hard pressed to miss a single episode(unless the writing makes me headdesk too hard. That has been known to happen, and is severely disappointing). Not only does it offer a kickass new female protagonist, but it looks like it will be thrilling and relatable. Especially for teenagers and younger people in general. We seem to feel the survival tug the strongest, seeing as we are just reaching the primitive definition of maturity. Our minds have yet to catch up with the centuries of what we call progress that has made our world much more boring in comparison to the sudden death thrill of primitive times. It was no mistake that Hunger Games and games like Lost in Blue are aimed at and are successful within the age groups they are.

                That’s possibly something that relates to your thoughts on inspiration by water; a return to our roots, the revealing of the human essence and what is purely necessary to us. There are things, in the collective human consciousness, that cannot fade through the years. Perhaps that’s the root of all excitement and inspiration, whether it be through the suffering that reminds us of the struggle for survival, or glimpses of what we came from at the basest of levels. The things that tug at our very standard heartstrings are incredibly straightforward, if we think about them.

~Leigh Shine